Collapse of the Golden City

THE NIGHT train steams through the Rajasthani desert and judders to a halt at Jaisalmer, the end of the line. Dozens of weary, dusty backpackers and Indian tourists descend to catch their first glimpse of the fortified Golden City, once a stronghold of Rajput warrior-princes. In seconds, a swarm of hustling youths in T-shirts and trainers is upon them, brandishing crumpled business cards with offers of cheap hotels and camel treks.

Together, Jaisalmer's annual influx of 250 000 visitors and its new residents, who have doubled the town's population in the past decade to over 40 000, have done what centuries of hostile invaders failed to do: precipitate its demise. Until three years ago, no one realised the chronic effect this deluge of people was having. Now the old citadel is collapsing on an alarming scale. The 800-year-old fort walls are crumbling, while magnificent royal palaces and merchant houses have ...

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